Kevin McCarthy Scum Again
It's your Sunday show rundown!
Last week GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was happy as he could be on the Sunday shows, over the statistical and historical possibility he'll be Senate majority leader once more.
This week it's GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, sporting a red face we can only assume he got from a penis charging station -- allegedly! -- on "Fox News Sunday."
Host Mike Emanuel lobbed every softball question he could to McCarthy, which gave McCarthy ample opportunity to turn the interview into a 14-minute infomercial of canned talking points.
He began by criticizing President Joe Biden's aid to Ukraine as "too slow."
MCCARTHY: If we would have taken those actions earlier instead of waiting until after Russia invaded, they probably never would have invaded had we done that sooner.
Emanuel pointed out that just this week, President Biden announced an additional $800 million in military aid. That's a total of $2.6 billion in security assistance, which included weapons. McCarthy, however, couldn't outline what President Biden could have done more, so he just said the thing about it being too slow again.
MCCARTHY: Ukraine was craving the ability to defend themselves. Had we moved the weapons to Ukraine earlier, that they could defend themselves, it would have saved thousands of lives and probably the decision of Putin not to enter.
It will surprise no one, other than the gullible voters he counts on to fall for his bullshit, that McCarthy was one of the many who saw nothing wrong with Donald Trump using military aid to extort Ukraine, and opposed both Trump's impeachments.
But if you think McCarthy's support for Ukraine and opposition to Vladimir Putin will last, here he is refusing to condemn the Putin wing of his caucus:
EMANUEL: Last week, 63 House Republicans voted against a symbolic resolution of unequivocal support for NATO. Are your colleagues wrong on this one?
MCCARTHY: No, there's a strong support for NATO moving forward. Always has been. NATO is in the process of defending themselves but the one thing we need to make sure these NATO countries spend the money, more than two percent.
Translation: He's gonna do nothing about the Putin wing, while pretending he is, and then use Trump's NATO rhetoric. It's the same kind of leadership that gets Marjorie Taylor Greene a wrist slap for attending a white nationalist convention, and makes him very disappointed with insurrectionist Madison Cawthorn only after Cawthorn starts yammering about cocaine orgies.
Of course, being scum is not new for McCarthy.
He after all, was the guy who lost his first chance at speaker when he said the quiet part out loud about the true nature of all the Benghazi investigations. Then Paul Ryan became speaker. Later, during a closed-door meeting prior to the 2016 election, McCarthy said out loud that he thought Putin was paying Dana Rohrabacher and Trump. Let's not forget all McCarthy's scummy moments relating to his phone calls with Trump on January 6.
All these moments of self-revealing cowardice and his devotion to the Trump/MAGA wing of his caucus may indeed make him the next failed GOP speaker of the House. He'd join the ranks of Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert. You know, if Matt Gaetz and the MAGA chumps don't screw him out of it first, that is.
But if it happens, then congratulations, Kevin McCarthy. Hope when your temporary joy at being speaker, passes, all the craven complicity will have been worth it.
Have a week.
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Matt Gaetz Succeeds In Getting Defense Sec To Yell At Him, Great Job Matt Gaetz!
He's just plain evil, is the problem.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), that useless bag of hair and forehead who should've gone to prison for sex trafficking by now, had a fine time grandstanding for rightwing media during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. As Ukraine called for investigations of Russian war crimes in the murders of hundreds of civilians in Bucha, Gaetz bravely interrogated US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about the extremely important issue of whether the Pentagon is even capable of having good manly wars anymore since it's drowning in "wokeness."
Gatz eventually managed to provoke Austin into a shouting match, so it was clearly a win for the vacuous troll and his important agenda of being a complete asshole.
Here's video of Gaetz being a smarmy turd, and Austin growing more and more exasperated at his bullshit.
Gaetz began with the nonsensical claim that the Pentagon was becoming a hotbed of "socialism" because the National Defense University hosted a lecture by French economist Thomas Piketty titled "Responding to China: The Case For Global Justice and Democratic Socialism." Gaetz was simply aghast that the Defense University would let some foreigner advocate socialism, instead of teaching something useful like how to kill Chineses and socialists both: "Why should American taxpayers fund lectures at the National Defense University that promote socialism as a strategy to combat China?"
Well for fuckssake, Mr. Gaetz, for the same reason that universities have guest lecturers at all: because Piketty is a respected scholar whose ideas are worth debating.
Austin said that the NDU is an "academic institution," and added that he wasn't familiar with the lecture; Gaetz feigned shock that the Secretary of Defense isn't personally monitoring every guest lecture at the NDU, and then demanded that Austin repudiate Piketty: "Would you agree that embracing socialism is not an effective strategy to combat China?"
Not surprisingly, Austin said no, we're not "embracing socialism," and undoubtedly mentally added, you jackhole.
Gaetz demanded answers, damn it, like why would the Defense Department even "invite people we don't agree with to evangelize views and values that we don't share” when "we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate?"
Again, this is where we point out that this was a single guest lecture, just like lots of universities have, but apparently Gaetz was terribly upset that the NDU didn't do some cancel culture to that filthy French socialist, who probably wears a beret and holds his cigarettes like a girl too.
Gaetz moved on to another absurd attack on the Pentagon, accusing "you guys" at the Defense Department of "blowing a lot of calls lately on matters of strategy."
Gaetz: Mr Secretary, you guys told us that Russia couldn't lose. You told us that the Taliban couldn't immediately win. And so I guess I'm wondering what in the $773 billion that you're requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?
Austin said that the defense budget request could "speak for itself," which somehow inspired Gaetz to hare off on a tangent about the US supposedly being "behind" in hypersonic cruise missile technology, which frankly is such a stupid claim that we'll simply link to CNN's discussion of his nattering and move on to Gaetz's subsequent bullshit, in which the great military mind accused the Pentagon of actively ignoring military threats because it's turning into Woke Forest University:
While everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training.
Gaetz knew he was talking out his ass, and so did Austin, who as a retired four-star general and secretary of Defense knows a fair bit about the military. But the goading got a reaction: Austin replied that the US has "the most capable, the most combat critical force in the world," and that it will continue to be so.
Ah, but Matt was having fun making Austin angry, and knew it would make for a great clip on Fox News, so he jumped in again, insisting "not if we keep going down this path! Not if we embrace socialism!"
Sadly, Austin let Gaetz's taunts get to him, and replied, "The fact that you’re embarrassed by your country, by your military. I’m sorry for that."
Gaetz, who has far more experience being a professional asshole, pretended to be wounded, for the sake of America:
Oh no, I’m embarrassed for your leadership. I'm not embarrassed for my country. I wish we weren't losing to China. That is so disgraceful, that you would sit here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniformed service members.
Hold on, what failures were those again? Gaetz had a terrific example in mind: The US defense establishment, like pretty much everyone in the world, thought Ukraine would be a goner when Russia invaded.
You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in three to six days. You said that the Taliban would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls. And maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism!
Fact check: One guest lecture by a French dude does not constitute an embrace of wokeism, socialism, or even poststructuralism.
Austin shot back, "Has it occurred to you Russia has not overrun Ukraine because of what we’ve done? And what our allies have done?"
But Gaetz was rolling with the standard "Democrats weak" rant, insisting that the "Obama administration tried to destroy our military by starving it of resources, and it seems the Biden administration is trying to destroy our military by force-feeding it wokeism.” His clip for Fox News in the can, Brave Matt Gaetz yielded his time.
Then, later Tuesday, Gaetz joined more than 60 other Republicans in voting against a House resolution expressing support for NATO, just like you'd expect from a good Trump-Putin Republican. But hey, maybe it's because Thomas Piketty, the socialist, is French, and France belongs to NATO, and NATO is therefore too "woke" for Gaetz. Yeah, that's probably it.
[CNN on YouTube / CNN / Independent]
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Your Weekly Dose Of GOP Non-Answers And BS, Courtesy Of The Sunday Shows!
We watch so you don't have to.
The Republican Party has long given up on governance or the appearance of even trying. It's so plain that even when they publicly confess that truth, it's met with a shrug rather than any pushback.
Translation: We have no agenda other than obstructing like it's 2008!
It's nevertheless infuriating when the GOP tries to cover its bullshit with a thin veneer of legitimacy.
Roy Blunt on ABC's 'This Week'
A great example of this is GOP Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who got his own dedicated Wonkette post about this earlier today. Blunt was asked about where he stood on the upcoming vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Blunt decided to pretend he just really wanted to be a part of this historic moment, but just couldn't vote for this particular person:
BLUNT: Really, there are two criteria, I said immediately. One is, is the person qualified for the job? And two is, what's her judicial philosophy?
She's certainly qualified. [...] But the judicial philosophy seems to be not the philosophy of looking at what the law says and the Constitution says and applying that, but going through some method that allows you to try to look at the Constitution as a more flexible document, and even the law. And there are cases that show that that’s her view. [...] And I won't be supporting her but I'll be joining others in understanding the importance of this moment.
If only the very qualified Judge Jackson had answered that question about her judicial philosophy. Oh wait. We guess Blunt just missed it during the confirmation hearings or when it was reported by The Wall Street Journal or Slate or The New York Times or Des Moines Register. I'm sure once Sen. Blunt's staff does a quick Google search, he'll get right on confirming Judge Jackson.
Right? Right?
John Cornyn on 'Fox News Sunday'
Speaking of lack of consistency, Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn was asked about Donald Trump doing that thing where he asks Russia to interfere in our elections (again) and asks for dirt on a political opponent (again) in plain sight and on tape. Because crimes done in plain view aren't crimes, we guess.
His answer will not surprise you if you've paid attention or have a longer political memory than a goldfish.
Asked on Fox News Sunday about Trump asking Putin for dirt on the Bidens even as Russia wages war on Ukraine, John Cornyn says "I wouldn't trust Vladimir Putin" but stops short of criticizing Trump or calling his comments unwisepic.twitter.com/jGU0CvbkJS— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1648994648
The acrobatics it takes to be against Russia while your presumptive presidential nominee for 2024 and the leader of your party is kissing Putin's ass is "Flying Graysons" level of difficult.
Ron Johnson and Bill Hagerty on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures'
Some in the GOP, rather than twist themselves into pretzels, just barrel on with their propaganda. So here's noted 4th of July Moscow vacationer and Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson!
Johnson went to Maria Bartiromo's conspiracy safe space show to spread the same old debunked conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden and the same old lies about Trump/Russia collusion being a hoax.
The cover-up of the Biden\u2019s vast web of foreign financial entanglements by our intelligence agencies is the worst corruption I\u2019ve ever seen in the United States government.pic.twitter.com/sTzP5U8dEY— Senator Ron Johnson (@Senator Ron Johnson) 1649079510
Later on the same show, Tennessee GOP Senator Bill Hagerty didn't have much time for questions about mass graves found in Kyiv, because he was on location to do some fearmongering at the OTHER border Fox News is freaked out about. "I want to talk about what's happening here at the [southern] border," he said.
Cornell Belcher on NBC's "Meet The Press"
We conclude with Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher telling a very plain truth that explains why Hagerty and the GOP want to switch topics to immigration, and more broadly why they don't have solutions to any problems.
BELCHER: Let's get real about immigration reform here, right? There's a reason why that's in almost every Republican ad, right? And look, we've seen this play before, right? This is part of that, more fuel for driving the tribalism that Republicans see as part of their political calculus as how they drive this. [...] Dissatisfaction with immigration has been driven by Republicans and they're feeding this. Not so long ago I remember when a guy named Barack Obama thought he had an immigration deal with the Gang of Eight. But it was in the Republicans’ benefit to not have a deal, comprehensive immigration reform, that included border security, that included a pathway. And by the way, most Americans think that you should pay a penalty, and there should be a pathway. And that's not going to happen. You know why it's not going to happen? Because Republicans in Congress don't want it to happen.
They have no plans or solutions because there's no political consequences for it (yet). They are counting on it for the midterms and beyond.
I hope we can prove them wrong.
Have a week.
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Sen. Kevin Cramer Thinks Trump Asking Putin For Dirt On Bidens Is Magnificent Joke
In Russia, joke plays you!
Donald Trump somehow hasn't yet literally put to the test his theory that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters, and we suppose if Republicans are fine with nearly a million people dead of COVID, they would barely bat an eye at his deciding to ask Vladimir Putin to pretty please share any dirt he might have on Hunter Biden, at least when Putin takes brief breaks from ordering war crimes against Ukraine. The wingnuts at Newsmax are fine with it, and so apparently are plenty of Republicans.
For instance, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), treated the whole matter as a joke in an interview with MSNBC's Chuck Todd Thursday. Not only did he consider Trump's behavior perfectly fine, just Trump being Trump, he also thought Trump's remarks themselves were a funny joke, just some brilliant trolling of the gullible press who took the comments seriously, haha, what guillible dopes.
Todd asked Cramer to clarify remarks Cramer had made Wednesday to CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju. Asked about Trump's request of Putin, Cramer dismissed it, because the real scandal is the Russian war crimes, abetted, apparently, by Joe Biden not being strong like bull as he should. Cramer explained the whole notion that Putin might respond to Trump's request was pretty funny, really:
"I don’t know if he has dirt on Biden. If he does, he should reveal it, but he is a war criminal so I don’t expect that he’s right now sitting around thinking about ways that he can reveal other information."
"I think anybody that has information about crimes that have been committed, all the rest of us would obviously reveal that. Criminals don’t generally do that. In other words, I think, it is perhaps amusing to you that he requested it. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it."
Asked if it were appropriate for Trump to make [the] ask, he said: “The appropriateness of things that Trump asks for is more amusing to you than it is to me. We have a current president who is, you know, way more concerning to me frankly than what the former president might be doing”
Honestly, what's the real threat to America? A former president amusingly asking a very busy war criminal to help bring down the current US president, or the current US president, who is "very concerning" in his own behavior?
Cramer dug in a little deeper when Todd asked him why the hell anyone would even believe anything Vladimir Putin might say, about Hunter Biden or anything else. Here's the video, queued up to the part of the interview where Todd asks Cramer about Trump's perfectly normal request of an autocrat who's responsible for killing thousands of civilians in Ukraine.
Todd: Why would you want that information? Why would you trust propaganda from somebody who is, you know, right now, based on the conversation I had earlier, President Biden called for him to be removed from power? [...] Why would you want to trust anything Putin had to say about Hunter Biden?
Cramer first feinted with a joke about "Russian collusion," then said he was being sarcastic anyway, because why even expect a war criminal to provide information about the many real crimes of Hunter Biden anyway?
Todd pushed Cramer on the propriety of Trump having said anything, what with Putin being an active war crimer right now:
"I mean, I’m sorry, it comes across as almost a bit unpatriotic to ask literally the enemy of the free world right now for propaganda for a political opponent. I mean, it just seemed like a horrendous thing to do by the former president. No?"
Cramer came back with some very smart whataboutism that didn't make a lick of sense. "Chuck, here's the reality," he said, laying out a purely hypothetical situation that is not reality at all: "If Hunter Biden’s name was Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump, you guys would be treating the war in Ukraine like it was a Boy Scout camp gone bad."
Again, what does that even mean? If a Trump spawn did something grifty, the media would ignore the invasion of Europe's second largest country? We're not seeing the attempted logic there.
Todd wasn't having it, anyway:
Todd: Don't whatabout. Enough of this! Senator, that is the laziest attack. It’s not about the media...
Cramer: It's also honest. It's also honest!
[Imaginary Narrator: It was not, in fact, honest]
Todd: It doesn’t matter about the media! Is it right for the former president of the United States to ask an enemy of the free world to do this?
Cramer started to roll out his line that the real scandal is Joe Biden's handling of the Ukraine emergency, but backed up a bit to dismiss the idea that a former president's humorous trolling during an international crisis was even worth commenting on:
Cramer: Donald Trump is Donald Trump. He hasn’t changed. He’s not going to change. It’s more interesting to the Washington press corps than it is to the general public. Was it the wisest thing in the world to say? Perhaps not, but he’s Donald Trump and he says these things, and the reality is that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.
No, we didn't forget to transcribe some sort of logical transition there.
Cramer went on to say that while he wouldn't trust anything Putin might say about Hunter Biden, Putin — like any good citizen? — should certainly present any evidence he has, so it could be evaluated, although Putin would automatically be unreliable, and we really are summarizing a US senator who makes laws, Jesus Christ.
What it all comes down to was that Trump was really the winner here, because "Once again Donald Trump baited you all and you all took the bait. Now we’re having to, you know, have a discussion about the Bidens."
Mmm-hmmm. You can really tell Cramer just hates having to talk about Hunter Biden.
Todd tried again to focus on Trump's bizarre behavior, for all the good that did: "At the end of the day, whether you like it or not, he’s the leader of your party. Are you comfortable with the leader of your party playing footsie with Vladimir Putin?"
Cramer fell back on Wingbot Subroutine B-297-8y, and tried to harrumph about Democrats planting false evidence about Trump colluding with Russia, bzzzz-click! and then, when Todd pointed out that had nothing to do with what Trump said this week, Cramer finally got to his Very Serious Concerns about Joe Biden, who is actually far worser:
I’m way more concerned, and I think the American people are, with the current president and his behavior and really the lack of scrutiny compared to a former president who has a long history of saying sort of outrageous things, whether seriously or not seriously, and being taken way, way, way too seriously, frankly, by a press corps that’s all too anxious to jump on an interesting personality, to say the least. But I’ll add when Donald Trump was president, Russia didn’t invade Ukraine.
Also, Cramer added, gas prices were way lower under Donald Trump, so there, even if that was largely because the economy was wrecked by the pandemic Trump refused to take seriously, although if you look closely, you'd see Trump was just trolling the virus to show it who's boss, the end.
[Manu Raju on Twitter / MSNBC on YouTube / Daily Beast]
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